It’s a simple example of the kind of employment gaps that keep farmers up at night, and that prevent their adoption of new technology, said the manager of an “upskilling” program that can potentially fill those gaps.

“About two years ago, the industry came to us to say ‘we can’t find the unique people that we need that understand technology and technology implementation but also understand agriculture and agri-food,” said Ednali Fertuck-Zehavi, manager of Palette Skills’ automation and digital agriculture specialist program.

Why it matters: Farm equipment is increasingly technical and it takes greater technical knowledge to keep it running as needed.

Through the eight-week, 130-hour course, Palette Skills, the federally funded non-profit that has overseen the program for the past two years, hopes to train people to fill producers’ employment needs. Its latest intake occurred in August, but its website will have information on upcoming intakes.

Depending on the program for which they’re best suited, participants are trained by industry experts with hands-on, project-based learning in how emerging technologies apply to ag. Core areas include GIS (geographic information system), IoT (internet of things), drones, artificial intelligence, robotics and big data.

In the process, it seeks to develop a full suite of professional skills, including project management, fundamentals of business development, problem-solving and team building.

The program is looking for students who are unemployed or underemployed in a range of fields and who may be able to bring their skills to the agriculture table. It’s open to post-secondary graduates with a minimum of three years’ work experience.

The program’s goal is to match agri-food employers with the agriculturally and technically informed candidates they would consider hiring, said Fertuck-Zehavi.

“We see if we have someone in our talent pool and we match them.”

Palette Skills developed the program through consultation with agriculture-based academic institutions and a variety of agri-food employers.

They found that academic excitement over a new innovation didn’t necessarily line up with the needs of farmers and ranchers. Farmers may not know how to implement new ideas on their operations. This is where the fundamental idea of “filling gaps” was identified.

With the feedback from their consultation, the organization built its automation and digital agriculture specialist program.

Program details

Participants may choose from three streams based on their goals and existing work experience: agribusiness and sales; industrial, technical and professional; and data analyst and programmer.

Possible careers available to agribusiness and sales graduates include precision agronomist and crop input sales rep. This stream has attracted participants with experience in project management, human resources, marketing, business development and even law.

Those participants spend a portion of their time learning online and another portion learning the basics of farming. The ideal employee would be one who could bring new concepts and new ideas to the fray, said Fertuck-Zehavi.

“If you train them in the main expertise of the agri-food sector, they take all this transferable knowledge and they can solve problems that we have in the sector in new, exciting ways,” she said.

That can have far-reaching implications.

“Having good agri-business management talent is essential to make those operations able to compete at the international level,” she said.

For those who want to participate in the industrial, technical and professional stream, post-program options might include precision agriculture specialist, remote sensing technician or automation technician.

It’s a broad stream requiring creative and critical thinking. Students with backgrounds as varied as engineering, soil science and genetics have finished the program under this stream.

If the goal can be distilled to a single sound bite, it would be “solve problems.”

It’s a matter of identifying challenges in current systems and solving them through current or potential technologies, said Fertuck-Zehavi.

“How do we make sure that what we have right now is working in the best way? Some farmers have processing facilities that cost them $10 million, but they only use a small portion of that capacity. Ideally, the graduate would have the talent to implement it properly.”

Graduates of the data analyst and programmer stream may find jobs as ag tech software engineers, precision ag programmers and agribusiness applications developers.

This is the stream that requires the most experience in computer programming, said Fertuck-Zehavi. Some challenges relevant to agriculture will require the ability to develop software-based solutions.

“Even though they did analytics and are excited about analytics … [if they] don’t have any programming experience, they won’t be able to go to the data analyst and programmer stream,” she said.

“If you don’t have those reserve skills, you still need to go through so much growth before you’ll be able to apply for those jobs and be successful in them.”

Farmer voice

The constant input of farmers has been key to the program, which recently finished its third cohort of attendees, said Fertuck-Zehavi.

“We involve the farmer constantly in providing training, reviewing our curriculum and providing real-life problems and case studies and we’re providing data that each stream is working on — those real-life challenges that we currently have in the industry.”

Funded by the Government of Canada through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Palette Skills is a non-profit organization that develops employer-driven upskilling programs that help mid-career workers find a place in the workforce.

A version of this article first appeared in Alberta Farmer Express.

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These amendments are intended to enhance protections for migrant workers and ensure the integrity of the government’s temporary foreign worker program.

While a step in the right direction, the changes side-step the root issues that make temporary foreign workers vulnerable to abuse in the first place.

More than 61,000 migrant workers were employed in Canada’s agriculture sector in 2021, an increase of almost 12 per cent from 2020, marking the greatest proliferation since 2016. In fact, migrant workers comprised nearly one-quarter of all agricultural workers in 2021.

Migrant agricultural workers are exposed to various physical and psychosocial health risks that are compounded by the precarious circumstances they face in Canada.

Our research shows the conditions of employment under Canada’s temporary foreign worker program generate significant challenges to workers’ health, the protection of their rights and even their survival.

Workers are hired on temporary contracts that bind them to a single employer, and these contracts include a repatriation clause that allows employers to terminate and deport workers without a grievance process. Injured and sick workers are often repatriated before they can access health care and/or workers’ compensation.

Consequently, migrant workers are often unable to refuse unsafe work and are reluctant to raise health concerns or report situations of abuse.

While acknowledging some of the issues facing migrant workers in Canada, the amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations fail to address the power imbalances at the heart of the program. In fact, they risk further cementing some of these systemic problems.

The federal government continues to entrench the role of the employer as an informal mediator of basic health care for workers.

Migrant workers in Ontario are eligible for provincial health care, but they experience many barriers to accessing such services, in part because of a reliance on employers.

Under the new amendments, the government normalizes this role. Employers are obligated to cover the waiting period before provincial health care eligibility by providing private health insurance to migrant workers upon arrival.

By imbuing the responsibility of “reasonable access to health care services” to employers when a worker is injured or becomes ill at the workplace, the government is wilfully denying the power imbalance and obvious conflict of interest posed by such an arrangement.

Consider, for example, the history of medical repatriations faced by this workforce, in which injured and sick workers are prematurely deported. At minimum, workers need independent access to health care that is unmediated by employers.

The risk of labour abuses and exploitation are addressed only through paperwork, and again, delegated to employers.

To illustrate, the amendments require all employers to provide migrant workers with an employment agreement on or before the first day of work, and they are to be drafted in English or French.

The agreements must match the initial offer of employment and include information about the job offer, wages, including overtime pay, and working conditions. Many migrant workers do not read English or French. Our research has also shown that workers’ rights on paper are almost never recognized in practice.

Therefore, there is no substitute for meaningful oversight and regulation.

More promisingly, the definition of “abuse” under the amendments has been updated to include “reprisal.”

We support this definition, as we have previously advocated for this and other actions to address workers’ risk of reprisal.

As has been the case since 2019, if a worker can prove they’re being abused, they may have access to an Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers.

However, that permit is an ineffective mechanism to report workplace abuse because it places the burden of proof on the worker. What’s more, it doesn’t guarantee future re-employment via the temporary foreign worker program, nor does it provide workers with the housing or support they require to find new employment.

To seriously respect the rights of migrant workers, Canada needs to transform the structure of the temporary foreign worker program to curtail the power and impunity of employers and embed rights and protections for workers.

This can only be done by providing truly structural changes, such as open work permits and permanent status — measures long called for by migrant workers and their allies.

To do any less is merely making cosmetic changes to a fundamentally flawed system.

– Stephanie Mayell is a doctoral candidate in medical anthropology at the University of Toronto. C. Susana Caxaj is an assistant professor of nursing at Western University. Janet McLaughlin is an associate professor of health studies and research associate at the International Migration Research Centre, Wilfred Laurier University.

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Experiences with international labour were among the topics at a Manitoba Ag Days panel discussion among farmers and immigration consultants.

Chris Raupers farms northwest of Brandon near Cardale and his family farm hired international student labour for several years following their own immigration from Germany.

“My father worked with a local full-time employee,” Raupers said. “For the extra seats that we needed filled at peak periods, we used German students.”

Why it matters: Canada has a farm labour crisis, and rural youth from other countries might be part of the solution.

As German expats, the Raupers found the process simpler than it would be for many other farmers in Manitoba. It amounted to simple word of mouth back in Germany among friends of his father.

“They’d tell young people there, ‘I have a friend farming in Canada’ and put us in touch,” Raupers said.

That system lasted for years. In early 2020, when COVID-19 made worker visas almost unattainable, the conveyor belt stopped. Within half a year, the farm was forced to build a local work force.

It wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t simple either. Raupers posted job openings across the country on marketplace websites and leaned on his personal network of friends and work colleagues to spread word of the opportunities.

[RELATED] Make sure even short-term employees aware of safety hazards

For the first time in his career, he could contrast the benefits and challenges of each work force, domestic and imported. Both were able to get the job done, but the imported workers required more constant effort.

“I spent a lot of time telling them where ‘that’ tool was or where ‘that’ machine went,” he said. “I’d send them to the field and then have to follow them a bit later to make sure they got there.”

The domestic workers initially required the same effort, but after the first year, Raupers found that workforce stability began to pay dividends.

“The second and third year, it freed up a lot of time,” he said.

Popular destination

That stability came at a price. Raupers found that domestic workers, while saving time in the long term, were also more expensive than the enthusiastic young Europeans who viewed the whole thing as an adventure.

“I had to reach pretty deeply into my back pocket,” Raupers said.

For the average Manitoban, an exotic locale likely evokes thoughts of Hawaii or the South Pacific. But to many young Europeans, Canada is a dream destination, according to Anita Warriner, executive director of International Rural Exchange Canada (IREC).

The organization facilitates the employment of young Canadians on farms abroad, as well as connecting young workers from other countries with farms here.

Canada’s wide open spaces and natural beauty are big attractions for young people globally, she said, and the scope of farms also catches their attention.

“The big fields and big equipment are a real draw, especially in Europe,” said Warriner.

She first got involved with IREC as a client who employed young people from Western European countries on her farm from 2003 onward. Warriner later jumped to the other side of the organization, serving on the board before becoming its executive director in 2010.

Workers generally come through three streams, she said, none of which require a labour market assessment to satisfy the federal immigration apparatus.

There are what are known as “working holidays,” which are open to participants from more than 30 countries. They can work at any business in Canada, don’t need formal training or credentials and must be paid per applicable provincial legislation.

There are also “young professionals” work permits. These are employer specific permits and employees must be paid, at a minimum, per applicable provincial legislation.

The final stream accounts for international “co-op” placements. These are intended to function like a college or university placement and employees can be paid rates different from provincial legislated minimum if both employee and employer agree.

Social skills

The “working holiday” is the most common designation, and while the work component is important, so is the holiday part, Warriner said.

By international agreement with designated countries, Canada allows travellers under 30 years of age to live and work for short periods in the country as a form of cultural exchange and national promotion.

“They need to experience Canadian culture,” Warriner said. “The goal is to have them return home and speak positively of Canada.”

That means opportunities for recreation, travel and meeting others is important to the success of a placement.

Raupers agreed, noting his exchange participants “want to be with you all the time” because this is the adventure they signed up for. It can be good, he added, because there is nearly always a willing set of hands to help with something.

It can also be tiring.

“They require organization. You’ve got to give them opportunities or make sure they have access to a vehicle so they can go places.”

Language barriers are a factor, both Warriner and Raupers said, but it might be lower than some expect. English is a widespread second language in Europe, and most young people have at least some background in the language.

The path to accessing these workers can vary. A farmer can find a youth themselves and secure the visa or work with organizations like IREC, Warriner said.

“You can do it yourself, but you might find it easier to work with someone,” she said.

In Raupers’ case, the future of labour on his farm is likely dual-pronged. He won’t be totally rolling back his local workforce, now that travel to and from Europe is back on track.

“A blend of both local and international will be what I seek out in the future,” he said.

The post International interns no ag labour panacea appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

A panel discussion at Manitoba Ag Days highlighted some of the experiences farmers and immigration consultants have had accessing international labour.

Chris Raupers farms near Cardale, about half an hour northwest of Brandon, after immigrating from Germany with his parents many years ago.

“My father worked with a local full-time employee,” Raupers said. “For the ‘extra seats’ that we needed filled at peak periods, we used German students.”

For more on this topic, see the Jan. 26 edition of the Manitoba Co-operator.

Manitoba Ag Days returned to Brandon’s Keystone Centre this year from Jan. 17-19.

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Wait, you mean to tell me it’s worth $11.74 a bushel these days, according to the latest figures from the province?

But I can’t afford that! It’s more than I want to pay! I’ll never turn a profit at that price! Why doesn’t anyone want to sell wheat anymore?

At that point, most wheat growers would likely have a response somewhere along the lines of ‘cry me a river, that’s what it’s worth’ – if not something featuring a few choicer words and perhaps a suggestion of where to go and how to get there. And that’s fine. It’s exactly how a free market is supposed to work.

But in recent days, it seems these rules don’t apply to the labour market – at least as a few prospective employers tell it.

A recent Winnipeg Free Press article entitled “Hired today, gone tomorrow” delved into local businesses’ difficulty in attracting employees.

To put it plainly, there was a whole lot of worker blaming going on. Sources quoted in the article included a restaurateur, the administrator of a construction firm, the spokesperson for a small-and-medium-sized business lobby group and a recruiting firm. Notably absent from the article was a worker, or even an organization representing the interests of workers.

According to sources quoted, it’s a worker wasteland out there. If you’re lucky enough to get applicants, they ghost the interviews. If they’re hired, they may or may not show up. And if they do show up, they probably won’t stick around.

Buried in the article is an interesting statistic that probably explains why: 4.4 per cent. That’s Manitoba’s current unemployment rate.

It’s been famously observed that “it’s difficult to make someone understand something when their salary depends upon them not understanding it.”

For many employers and the lobby groups that represent them, this seems to be the case regarding the ongoing and possibly chronic labour shortage.

[RELATED] Alberta Farmer Express: Program targets worker shortage, promotes careers in ag

One academic from the University of Victoria recently noted the labour shortage will continue for at least the next five years. Others, including the World Bank, say even that gloomy prognostication is likely too rosy. Its figures suggest Canada’s working population will decline more than three per cent between 2026 and 2036, despite high immigration targets.

It also predicts a similarly dire labour situation for other developed countries. The U.S., U.K. and France are all expected to see a decline in their labour force. Germany is in an even worse spot, as an expected seven per cent drop in its labour pool is forecast over the same period.

Employers may have to admit that the problem doesn’t lie with lazy and feckless workers, but rather with a fundamental change in the labour market. They might have to offer higher wages, better working conditions and more stability to attract employees.

It’s no accident that the industries hit hardest appear to be the least attractive from an employee perspective. We’re talking about food service, retail, manufacturing, construction, trucking – and agriculture.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which was also quoted in the Free Press article, 74 per cent of Canadian agri-business owners are working more hours to make up for lack of staff. Nearly half of those businesses have turned down business because of the labour shortage and 41 per cent have “decreased service offerings.”

The Canadian Agriculture Human Resources Council is in the midst of formulating a strategy to combat labour shortages throughout the agri-food sector, and recently released an interim report on the effort.

Reporter Geralyn Wichers covered this in our Dec. 7 issue of the Co-operator, and noted there are five key areas under investigation:

• people and workplace culture;
• perception and awareness;
• skill development;
• automation and technology; and
• immigration and foreign workers.

Too often it seems immigration and foreign workers are seen as a cure-all, but that’s lazy thinking that should be avoided.

Our stated immigration policy is to court skilled workers where shortages exist. These folks shouldn’t be viewed as a source of cheap labour.

And temporary foreign workers will either leave after a short time, as the very name suggests, or they’ll gain permanent residency. The second that happens, don’t count on them sticking around if better jobs are on offer. They’ll act in their own self-interest.

The obvious question here is clear. What’s being done to make the sector a better and more attractive place to work?

Until there’s a clear and credible answer to that, don’t expect a quick solution to labour woes.

Solving it is going to require a concentrated effort and a willingness to change.

The post Editor’s Take: It’s a workers’ market out there appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Vancouver-based Premium announced Friday it will pay a total of $227 million in cash, shares and promissory notes for four companies: Concord Premium Meats, The Meat Factory, Country Prime Meats and Frandon Seafood.

Premium CEO George Paleologou, in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report on Friday, said the company is “very excited about all of these businesses both on a stand-alone basis as well as the potential synergies between them and our legacy businesses.”

All four firms, he said, have “best-in-class management teams, modern well run facilities, entrepreneurial cultures and, in the cases of Concord and The Meat Factory, leading iconic brands.”

Premium didn’t say what it will pay for each company separately, but noted its deal for Concord Premium Meats is subject to approval from the federal Competition Bureau.

The Competition Bureau calls for advance notice of proposed deals when a target firm’s assets in Canada — or its revenues from sales in or from Canada generated from those assets — are valued above a given threshold, which for 2018 is set at $92 million.

The Concord deal is thus expected to close in the second quarter of this year, pending bureau approval. The deals for The Meat Factory, Country Prime Meats and Frandon are all expected to close in the next two weeks.

Set up in 1993 and based at Vaughan in the Greater Toronto Area, Concord Premium Meats operates federally inspected further-processing plants at Vaughan, Mississauga and Brampton and at St-Eustache, Que.

Concord’s plants make beef, poultry and pork products including deli meats, burgers, roasts, steaks and kabobs, among others, for the retail and foodservice sectors. Its brands include MarcAngelo, Skoulakis, Central Park Deli, Black River Angus and Connie’s Kitchen.

The Meat Factory, or TMF Foods, founded by Lou Albanese, operates a federally inspected 85,000-square foot plant in the Stoney Creek area of Hamilton and makes beef, pork and poultry products under the Lou’s Barbeque and Peameal Bacon of Canada brands.

Country Prime Meats, founded by the Springmann family in 1996, processes pork into various pepperoni meat snacks at Lac la Hache, B.C., about 220 km northwest of Kamloops, selling nationwide and into the U.S.

Frandon, based at St-Laurent, Que., distributes seafood products such as fresh fish, crab, shrimp, lobster, squid, scallops and frozen goods such as beverages, desserts, chicken and appetizers in the Montreal area.

Paleologou, in Friday’s year-end report, said the company “continue(s) to pursue a wide variety of acquisition opportunities and expect(s) 2018 to be our busiest year yet for transactions.”

‘Unexpected headwinds’

Premium on Friday booked full-year earnings of $80.5 million on “record” full-year sales of $2.198 billion for 2017, up from $68.8 million on $1.858 billion in 2016.

Fourth-quarter earnings came in at $17.2 million on $585.4 million in revenues, down from $20 million on $532.6 million in the year-earlier Q4.

“In terms of the fourth quarter, while we continued to generate record sales and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), our results were below our potential due to certain unexpected headwinds,” Paleologou said.

“In particular, very tight labour markets across North America created unusual operating challenges for many of our businesses as well as those of our supply chain partners. These challenges included higher employee turnover rates and in some cases labour shortages.”

Premium, which operates plants and distribution centres in seven provinces and seven U.S. states, is “confident that we are taking all of the necessary steps needed to adjust to this new environment,” he said. — AGCanada.com Network

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Under rules introduced by the previous Conservative administration, the number of low-skilled foreign workers a firm could employ would have dropped to 10 per cent on July 1 from 20 per cent currently.

Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk said she was freezing the limit at 20 per cent for employers who had hired workers before June 20, 2014. Those accessing the system after that date are subject to a 10 per cent cap.

Mihychuk, who has vowed to revamp the system, told Reuters in April she might push back the July 1 start date, saying it was too ambitious.

Farmers and meat processors complained the 10 per cent limit would result in labour shortages while unions say the curbs are needed to prevent firms from filling jobs that could otherwise be taken by Canadians.

The Liberals loosened foreign-worker restrictions in March for seafood plants. Mihychuk said at the time she was not convinced other sectors needed the same help.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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Employers have reported difficulty finding workers despite a 7.1 per cent unemployment rate. Many Canadians resist jobs involving manual labour and rural living, a trend that has driven up labour costs and hurt productivity.

Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk told Reuters the Liberal government may delay the July 1 starting date for changes made by the previous Conservative administration, when low-skilled foreign workers can account for no more than 10 per cent of an employer’s workforce. That is down from 20 per cent currently and 30 per cent in 2014.

Mihychuk said that timeline may be too ambitious.

“Ten per cent has obviously caused a lot of disruption,” she said.

The move to 10 per cent is part of a “progressive strangulation of the livestock industry” in rural areas, said Ron Davidson, spokesman for the Canadian Meat Council, whose members include Cargill and JBS Canada.

At Sunterra Group, the changes mean some workers would have to leave even though its pork processing plant at Trochu, Alta., about 85 km southeast of Red Deer, runs at only 70 per cent capacity, said president Ray Price.

“They’re so happy to be here and they’ve come from difficult environments,” he said. “To see them start to go home makes everybody feel sad.”

Even though the government may extend the deadline, Mihychuk said employers should try harder to hire Canadian aboriginals, women and youth.

The Liberals loosened foreign-worker restrictions in March for seafood plants. Mihychuk said then she was not convinced other sectors needed the same help.

But other parts of the program are also creating worker turnover.

Ontario-based Highline Mushrooms lost 73 harvesters last spring, mostly because of a government rule change in 2011 that foreigners who work in Canada for four years must then return home for at least four years.

It meant that last year, many Highline mushroom harvesters, including 40 per cent of harvesters on one Ontario farm, headed back to Jamaica, Guatemala and Honduras. Some of the crop went to waste because there were not enough workers to pick.

“We take up to a year to train workers and then we know they will have to leave. When someone works for you for four years, they’re part of your family,” said Highline director of human resources Susan McBride.

The gap between domestic workers and jobs on Canadian farms was 59,000 positions in 2014, of which foreign workers filled three quarters, according to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

The gap will expand to 114,000 jobs by 2025, the council said, adding that vacancies currently cost farms $1.5 billion in lost sales and production.

Legislator Jason Kenney, who handled the file when the Conservatives held power, said foreign workers’ stay should be temporary. Since it is not easy to recruit Canadians for many jobs, he said employers should consider boosting wages and benefits.

Humboldt, Sask. grain farmer Kenton Possberg employs six workers from Europe and South Africa, and restarts his search every time a worker times out. He said many farms already pay more than double minimum wage of $10.50, but bigger paychecks don’t overcome disadvantages such as remote locations.

“If we can’t find a Canadian to occupy that role, I don’t know why we have to go through (hiring) all over again every year.”

David Tharle, a beekeeper in northeastern Alberta, where numerous oilfield workers are unemployed, said a former employee recently rebuffed his offer to return, saying he would rather serve fast food.

Maple Leaf Foods is short workers at its Brandon, Man. pork-processing plant and wants Ottawa to make it easier for foreign workers to become citizens, said Susan Yaeger, senior manager of human resources.

The current system allows some employers to abuse their leverage by keeping workers short-term, said Stan Raper, national co-ordinator for the Agricultural Workers Alliance.

“It’s not a humane system,” he said.

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the agriculture and mining sectors from Winnipeg. Additional reporting for Reuters by Andrea Hopkins in Toronto.

The post Canada may delay foreign worker limits as packers, farms face squeeze appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“We’re looking at very solid prices for 2015. At the risk of saying it, there’s potential for even higher prices,” Brian Perillat, manager and senior analyst for CANFAX, told a group of producers at this year’s Manitoba Forage and Livestock symposium in Portage la Prairie.

He said the next six months will be a good marker, but the steady rise in beef prices bodes well for the industry. Low beef production in the country set the prices high while strong local and global demand maintained strong prices.

Ground beef sales — with prices increasing 50 to 70 per cent in the last few years — have played a large role in this, according to Perillat. Middle meats, including steaks, have also gone up 20 to 30 per cent.

“Consumers are willing and able to pay for beef and that’s brought prices to extremely record-high numbers,” he said.

Cow-calf producers will likely be the biggest beneficiaries in this market, thanks to tight calf supplies and strong competition.

Factors, including high fed cattle prices, cheaper grain, a lower Canadian dollar and tight cattle supplies, mean these market signals are bid into calf prices, giving cow-calf producers higher profits from the high-priced calves they sell.

Manitoba producers will particularly benefit, since calf prices rose 70 per cent in the fall. Perillat projects there will be even fewer calves around in 2015, which is good news for cow-calf producers, but remains a challenge for the industry, which is in need of expansion.

Labour shortages are causing packers to choose between killing more cattle and doing more processing. This puts them at a disadvantage, causing many producers to export their cattle elsewhere, often to the United States. In 2014, Canada will have exported over 1.2 million head of cattle out of the country. Last year this country doubled feeder export numbers and this year is 50 per cent higher again.

“We’re probably going to have the third- or fourth-biggest export number in 20 years,” he said.

High export numbers combined with labour shortages have created a perfect storm for packing companies.

There has been a substantial drop in the national slaughter number, leading three Canadian plants, one in Quebec, one in Moose Jaw and one in Calgary, to close their doors in the last three years.

Utilization rates in slaughter facilities hang just over 80 per cent, which Perillat said, “is OK, not great.”

He forecasts slaughter numbers will be tighter in 2015 and hopes the consistently good prices will lead more producers to expand. “Somehow we’ve got to be competitive and keep cattle in Canada,” he said.

What’s it going to take to expand the beef industry in Canada? Perillat said the key is confidence.

“Rightfully so, there’s still a lot of people skeptical of how long this will last. They’ve tried it and been kicked a few times.

“We’re still a little hesitant while the U.S. is a lot more aggressive. We need to keep a heifer. Otherwise she’s going to go to Nebraska and be put on feed and never seen again.”

The post CANFAX bullish on beef market outlook appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

While rural populations in Manitoba overall are still growing by .6 per cent, since 1996, places farther away from Brandon, Winnipeg and Winkler are not faring as well.

“Really rural places have been declining for quite some time,” Ray Bollman told the group of people gathered to hear him speak about Manitoba’s current rural demography trends on Nov, 4.

“Back in 1971, 200 people joined the labour force every time 100 people left the labour force. Rural development was very easy.”

These numbers have steadily decreased over the last 40 years so that today 122 people in non-metro Manitoba enter the workforce for every 100 that leave. Statistics Canada analysts expect these figures to plunge below 100. That means there will be fewer 19-year-olds than there are 64-year-olds, which points to pending labour shortages.

Some rural communities are already experiencing shortages. As of 2012, Lac du Bonnet had 50 people entering the labour market for every 100 who left while Gimli had 77 and Dauphin 89.

Some communities are attracting immigrants. Outside of Winnipeg, in 2012 to 2013, .31 per cent of the population were immigrants who had arrived in the previous year. The Winkler, Morden and Altona area is the most successful region, outside of Winnipeg, at attracting immigrants. Those communities have nearly one immigrant for every 100 residents.

Bollman compares this to playing bridge, which he played as a young boy.

“The rule was you should always go down a third of the time. If you don’t lose your bid a third of the time you’re not bidding high enough. Winkler is winning by bidding high, attracting lots of immigrants. Yes they’re losing some, but they’re more successful at attracting immigrants.”

Unfortunately the number of immigrants arriving is not enough to outweigh the number of people leaving.

“Manitoba as a whole loses more people to the rest of Canada than it gains on net migration,” he said.

Some communities have responded to the development challenge by marketing themselves as retirement communities. Bollman referenced Elliot Lake in Ontario as an example. The only problem with this tactic, he said, is that most retirees will leave after 10 or 15 years so they can live near a health-care facility.

“Then you’ve got to recruit 10 per cent every year because 10 per cent are leaving every year. It’s a hard role to hold, but it’s still maybe the best bet for some of these places.”

Whether courting seniors or new immigrants, Bollman’s advice to these communities is to get creative. “If any of these communities want to stabilize their workforce they have to find something new to export. A new good or a new service.”

He cited as an example, the flax bread that Angusville once produced. “Or you could try producing alfalfa pellets. Or something different like retirement homes around Riding Mountain. Or bring back the Pembina Ski Hill and sell ski hill services.”

“To quote Red Green,” he said. “‘We are all in this together. I’m pullin’ for ya.’”

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